When mentor and protégé met

Many see the meeting as ‘bridging their differences’

While many from the AAP and anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare’s camp describe their first meeting after Arvind Kejriwal became Delhi Chief Minister as “just a courtesy call”, insiders in the party said it was an opportunity to “bridge differences and misunderstandings between the two”.

The 20-minute meeting came about at a special convention of Gandhian activists from across the country on “2014 Lok Sabha elections and the role of Gandhians”.

Mr. Hazare, considered a prominent Gandhian himself, was in the Capital to attend the convention that was organised for discussions on the proposal for extending support to the one-year-old party which according to the invitation letter “broke people’s indifference and despair and gave a positive hope to them and also brought about an organisational basis to it”.

The activists who played a vital role in organising the convention told The Hindu that Mr. Hazare’s participation in the convention, which discussed AAP’s electoral potential on the national platform, was in itself a “first major step” to help sort out differences between Anna and Kejriwal. “It would further strengthen the AAP,” said one of them.

“Mr. Hazare came to attend the convention knowing full well that there would be a discussion on the political potential of the AAP and the role therein expected from the Gandhians like us as far as supporting the party’s cause is concerned,” he said.

“The country at several levels is going through turbulent times where the 2014 Lok Sabha elections seem to be heading towards a political tsunami. Under these circumstances, the rise of a new political player — the Aam Aadmi Party — has created a new wave. The AAP got a big political success in Delhi. It has formed a non-conventional government and is also doing things differently,” says the invitation letter for the convention.

A senior AAP leader told The Hindu that misunderstanding was created between Aannaji and Arvind because of the go-betweens. “We are happy that they met. It’s a big healing of the misunderstanding between them,” he said.

It appears that an item meant to appear in Open Page has wrongly found its way in the comments column here. Nice job, The Hindu !

from:
Shekar

Posted on: Feb 11, 2014 at 09:47 IST

The existing fronts-UPA,NDA and Third-are vying to placate voters promising freebies and offering impossibles under the tight international economic regime.In ideology left has become right and right left leaving intellectuals aghast and confused.With not more than 60% of eligible voters voting, the leading party in the front getting lesser than 25% of vote casted , the government will be a minority one swiming and pendulating based on the dictate of the party with the lowest % of casted votes.What a tragedy to Indian democracy?
The AAP will have a deciding role in this arena of uncertainty.Presence of AAP will be visible only in Delhi and still it will play a role.When it comes to the post of PM , regional parties especially of Tamil Nadu will have a decisive stake and claim.It is difficult to predict at this time but the digital media are full of campaigning and luckily 40-60% of Indias population especially rural are not influenced by the virtual campaigns.

from:
Dr K V Peter

Posted on: Feb 10, 2014 at 17:46 IST

Great men are great because they are far sighted, can see through political manipulations, and because they care passionately about the people and their cause.

In India that cause happens to be eradication of corruption, which is destroying Indian economy and every aspect of society. Donât take my word for it!

Christine Lagarde, MD of IMF said: "In India, the net worth of the billionaire community increased twelve-fold in 15 years, enough to eliminate absolute poverty in this country twice over. â¦ Put simply, a severely skewed income distribution harms the pace and sustainability of growth over the longer term. ... It leads to an economy of exclusion, and a wasteland of discarded potential ... it can tear the precious fabric that holds our society together." (Dimbleby Lecture 2014, source: IMF).

from:
D Mahapatra

Posted on: Feb 10, 2014 at 09:57 IST

Anna has done great miscalculation by breeding selfish and immature and over ambitious people like Kejriwal in the political arena. I think what ever good Ann has done over the years, all these have been tarnished by one person Kejriwal. Time Anna either retires from any activity and agitation, or completely dissociate from AAP, since the new party of Arvind is almost lime done man show to cater to his whims and fancies like Gadafi and other dictators.

from:
gopalan

Posted on: Feb 10, 2014 at 07:57 IST

ARVIND KEJRIWAL OR A GODSEND?

This fellow, Arvind Kejriwal, is revolutionaries of yore packed into one modern man! The more I regard this Bharat Ratna, the more I realize that a kind of Godsend is happening to Indians, after all.
It is the livingâs art of Indians to have faith in Ishwarah. That is the basic constitution of a typical Indian. They are a good one and quarter billion growing apace. They are like a sea mass at wave function where the odd truant wave here and there has little meaning. Here is an example: Indiaâs first Prime Minister was an acknowledged agnostic. He paid little heed to Ishwarah or the Vedic Indian good. He did all he could to force on Indians his Fabian things. He is gone for an age, but the Indian people have naturally stayed on. And they continue to believe in Ishwarah.
Arvind Kejriwal is the newest convert- as by him admitted publically. And that is good so. So we can be sure that this man will not disregard essential India as have all the rest been doing over the years of their corrupt practices.
Arvind Kejriwal is a class apart. He is a rare specimen of probity and honesty and forthrightness publishing all over again the Upanishad truth: Satyamev Jayte. The things he says and the outright sincerity he brings to daylight in doing them is exactly the thing this terribly corrupted India needs.
Indians can no more complain, as has been their wont to do, that they are helpless. They are that not, not any more. Arvind Kejriwal has brought to their door help. What help!
He beams with self-assurance and Chanakya determination. He has little ado about himself. He is an ordinary Indian who has woken up to his duty in a measure which easily makes of him a modern day Arjuna. I guess he is at pains to acquire enlightenment on life which the original Arjun was blessed to receive from Lord Krishna Himself. Why, we have the gift of Gita with us. Anyone can take possession of that enlightenment by good will and some hard work. Nor is it that hard. All that Gita says is do your duty. That is all- do your duty! Do not waste a second on thinking of the fruit of your labor. First be enlightened! Then on to duty!
There is no greater knowledge to obtain in this world.
And then the assurance from the Lord Himself
HATO VA PRAPSYSI SWARGAM, JITWA VA BHOKSHAYSE MAHIM!
India is anyway a Karmbhoomi.
What knows Sonia Gandhi of that stuff? Nothing! Nothing at all!
Mother India bears remarkable sons and daughters from time to time independent of what its mass is up to. For example, it bore Tulsidass at a time when the Moghuls ruled the roost. This Bharat Ratna fired the slumbering enslaved peoplesâ imagination with refreshing nationalism. One fine day then, they brought it to the kill- gone was Islam rule over India.
In our own time Mother Indian gifted Indians with Vivekananda, a Bharat Ratna before whose intellectual might the mightiest of this world bowed in reverence.
That is history of which we have to learn to be legitimately proud. We have not been doing that duty as well as we should.
Now comes on Arvind Kejriwal.
This brave Bharat Ratna has already put before us example, and solid example before precept.
I was elated when I heard him tell a Media person point blank: Janlokpal Bill or he quits.
That is the character stuff Mother India expects most from its children at this moment.
I hope Arvind Kejriwal keeps true to his word.
He is anyway in a win win position.
People have awakened to their duty somewhat, but with a little help from more knowledgeable folks across the country, they will wake up fully, so fully as to be Arjunas by the million, each one out to do duty to Mother Land.
All this thanks to Arvind Kejriwalâs initiative, bravery, fearlessness, revolutionariness, and all that which it takes to make of men Vivekanandas, Netaji Subhash Chander Boses, Bhagat Singhs, Chandershekhar Azaads, Bismils, Annas, in a word, revolutionaries.
Arvind Kejriwal is indeed a Godsend.
Indians, if they be men and women of mettle, have no more alibis to hide behind shirking their duty to Mother Land.
Besides, Arvind Kejriwal is a man by looking at whom, and at his work, one can exclaim with joy
HIMMATE MARDAN, MADADE KHUDA!
745
Postscript
Readers! You know there are real Bharat Ratnas and those false, donât you?